The sport of ice fishing has become extremely popular in recent times. Since ice fishing is performed out-of-doors, and often in difficult weather conditions, the ice-fisherman generally requires some sort of shelter from the elements. Therefore, with this increase in popularity of ice fishing, there has been a concomitant increase in the demand for ice fishing shelters.
There has thus been several proposals for ice fishing shelters, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,173,436 and 4,438,040 for example.
While the presently available ice fishing shelters are somewhat successful, there are several shortcomings that prevent or at least inhibit the full commercial acceptance of such shelters. Principal among these shortcomings is the provision of space to comfortably seat only one occupant in the shelter. If more than one fisherman is going on the expedition, several shelters must be provided, or a single shelter that is extremely cumbersome and unwieldly to transport, set up and use must be provided. Such means of accommodating plural fisherman can also be expensive.
Furthermore. presently available ice fishing shelters, because they are designed for only one occupant, generally are suitable for use with but a single ice fishing hole. If the fisherman wishes to use several fishing holes, he must go outside the shelter, which defeats some of the purpose of the shelter.
Still further, presently available ice fishing shelters have runners that are designed as skids, and thus are not fully effective in many situations involving the difficult terrain often encountered in ice fishing.
Accordingly, there is a need for a portable, collapsible ice fishing shelter that can accommodate more than one fisherman, and more than one fishing hole, yet is easily stored, set up and transported.